allAfrica.com: South Africa: 'We Need All Hands On Deck to Solve the Crisis' (Page 1 of 2)

Interview with Graeme Bloch of the Development Bank of South Africa

Teachers who are not trained properly, teacher strikes and HIV/AIDS are taking a huge toll on the educational system in South Africa.

"Thousands of children leave our schools without the foundation skills to enable them to enter further study programmes or to obtain skilled jobs," says Graeme Bloch, an education specialist at the Development Bank of South Africa.

"If we all make education our priority, we may start to address the problem," Bloch stresses. IPS Correspondent Stephanie Nieuwoudt spoke to Bloch about what can be done.

Is the current system of different provinces with each having its own education policy constructive to the goals for education in the country?

I believe that the country needs much tighter national control. The national department of education should not only be the body that makes policy, if it is constitutionally viable, there should be one department of education only. But there should be room for provincial specific programmes.

Poverty is often blamed for bad results, yet some schools in remote parts of the country sometimes manage wonderful pass rates. Success is dependent on the individual at the helm of the school. There is a principal in one of these areas, who has drawn the community to the school. He has members of the community involved in schemes which generate money for the school and the community. This principal is organised -- to the benefit of not only the community but also the school.

The problems experienced by the schools in the different provinces, are reflected in the performance rates. In KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and the Eastern Cape, the performances are worse. The middle band lies in Northwest, Free State while the best performances are in Gauteng, Northern Cape and the Western Cape.

One cannot put all of the blame on the education departments for terrible year-end results. Last year teachers countrywide went on strike for a month. The casualties were the children.

The education crisis can be addressed if the whole of society gets behind the department of education Teachers should be supported by government. They should be given textbooks and other materials needed for teaching. And these things should be there when schools re-open at the beginning of each year.

There is a huge problem with inadequately trained teachers and the Outcomes Based Education (OBE) system has been criticised.

We certainly have to re-evaluate the way that teachers are trained. There is finally acknowledgment that the OBE system was far too ambitious when it was implemented in early 2000 Although standards which demand a lot from both students and teachers are good, it has to be implemented in a structure where teacher support is excellent. We simply do not have that in this country.

OBE focuses on the development of critical thinking and it demands that the student does a lot of work himself. OBE is near impossible to implement in an area where there are no textbooks, no photocopying machines, libraries or other facilities to aid the teaching process.

The dropout rate of primary school children is high. How does one address this?

It is difficult to address in a country where children often have to cross flooded rivers, where there is no adequate transportation system, where they go to school on empty bellies, and where many of them are the heads of households where parents have died due to AIDS.

There is also the language issue. It has been established that children who are taught in their mother tongue, perform better at school. Government has made a start in developing materials in different languages. However, the problem is that many teachers themselves may not be proficient in the specific languages.

Children in poorer areas are also exempt from paying school fees. However, this system is being rolled out over a number of years and it will take some time before it reaches all needy children. There is a lot of criticism from people who say that free education in this country is too costly for the government.

How good is morale amongst teachers after the strikes last year?

The unions and the departments -- provincial and national -- are playing blame games. There are bad relations between teachers and the authorities. If you are focusing on blaming something or someone, teaching falls by the wayside.

The unions are not doing much talking about raising the professional standards of teachers. While morale is low, students are not inspired to study or to enter the profession themselves.

Establishing a good foundation when the child enters school, assures success later in life. We have in the past failed to provide a sound basis. What is being done right now at the lower grade levels?

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